History Headscratchers / KingArthur

* Meta-question. Is there any actual mythological basis for the association of Arthur and Excalibur with the element of wind? Because I do seem to run into that a lot. To give a few examples: In VisualNovel/FateStayNight, which features a gender-flipped Arthur, Excalibur is blessed by a spirit of wind, hiding the blade behind storms so the enemy cannot discern its true identity or exact size, also useable as a storm-based attack. In [[SonicStorybookSeries Sonic and the Black Knight]], Sonic, revealed to be the "true" King Arthur in the end, is dubbed the Knight of the Wind. And in Franchise/FireEmblem, it's a recurring thing to have wind spells named after the blade, most notably the Excalibur spell, though there's also Aircalibur and Rexcalibur. I do realize the latter are just bad puns, but still. So, anyone?

to:

* Meta-question. Is there any actual mythological basis for the association of Arthur and Excalibur with the element of wind? Because I do seem to run into that a lot. To give a few examples: In VisualNovel/FateStayNight, which features a gender-flipped Arthur, Excalibur is blessed by a spirit of wind, hiding the blade behind storms so the enemy cannot discern its true identity or exact size, also useable as a storm-based attack. In [[SonicStorybookSeries Sonic and the Black Knight]], ''VideoGame/SonicSAndTheBlackKnight'', Sonic, revealed to be the "true" King Arthur in the end, is dubbed the Knight of the Wind. And in Franchise/FireEmblem, it's a recurring thing to have wind spells named after the blade, most notably the Excalibur spell, though there's also Aircalibur and Rexcalibur. I do realize the latter are just bad puns, but still. So, anyone?

* The holy grail is a French pun. In Old French, Holy Grail is "San Greal" and Blood of Kings is "Sang Real" The quest for the holy grail was actually a quest for the blood of kings. Pulling the sword from the stone is an analogy of finding the Roman spirit that was diluted by the Pagan influence - it was likened to a sword in a dripping cave. The mineral deposits would cover the sword in stone, and separating the sword from that stone was like separating the Roman spirit from the Briton's influence.

* To add my French 2 cents, with a [[WatsonianVersusDoylist Doylist]] attitude: The Grail appeared and was developped in stories from the late 12th-13th centuries; this is the period when, seeing that Arthur's legends were ''insanely'' popular with Knights while not really all that "catholic" (what with all the violent, dumb, flirtatious, adultery Knights of the Round Table behaving in a world filled with magical being), authors started christianizing the Arthurian world. So, as for an "explanation for the quest", a fair "out of story" explanation would be "because that way, they are all unambiguously Christians".

to:

* ** To add my French 2 cents, with a [[WatsonianVersusDoylist Doylist]] attitude: The Grail appeared and was developped in stories from the late 12th-13th centuries; this is the period when, seeing that Arthur's legends were ''insanely'' popular with Knights while not really all that "catholic" (what with all the violent, dumb, flirtatious, adultery Knights of the Round Table behaving in a world filled with magical being), authors started christianizing the Arthurian world. So, as for an "explanation for the quest", a fair "out of story" explanation would be "because that way, they are all unambiguously Christians".

* To add my French 2 cents, with a [[WatsonianVersusDoylist Doylist]] attitude: The Grail appeared and was developped in stories from the late 12th-13th centuries; this is the period when, seeing that Arthur's legends were ''insanely'' popular with Knights while not really all that "catholic" (what with all the violent, dumb, flirtatious, adultery Knights of the Round Table behaving in a world filled with magical being), authors started christianizing the Arthurian world. So, as for an "explanation for the quest", a fair "out of story" explanation would be "because that way, they are all unambiguously Christians".

** As far as I know, no. In literature Excalibur is associated with light or fire because it's a bright shining blade. It's said to be "as bright as 30 torches" in ''Morte D'Arthur''. It appears to be wreathed in fire in ''The Dream of Rhonabwy'' in the ''Mabinogion'', as its hilt has a design of two serpents whose mouths project flames, "so dreadful that it was not easy for anyone to look".

to:

** As far as I know, no. no that seems to be a recent thing. In medieval literature Excalibur is associated with light or fire because it's a bright shining blade. It's said to be "as as bright as 30 torches" torches in ''Morte D'Arthur''. It appears to be wreathed in fire in ''The Dream of Rhonabwy'' in the ''Mabinogion'', as its hilt has a design of two serpents whose mouths project flames, "so dreadful that it was not easy for anyone to look".flames.

** As far as I know, no. In literature Excalibur is associated with light because it's a bright shining blade.

to:

** As far as I know, no. In literature Excalibur is associated with light or fire because it's a bright shining blade.blade. It's said to be "as bright as 30 torches" in ''Morte D'Arthur''. It appears to be wreathed in fire in ''The Dream of Rhonabwy'' in the ''Mabinogion'', as its hilt has a design of two serpents whose mouths project flames, "so dreadful that it was not easy for anyone to look".

* Meta-question. Is there any actual mythological basis for the association of Arthur and Excalibur with the element of wind? Because I do seem to run into that a lot. To give a few examples: In FateStayNight, which features a gender-flipped Arthur, Excalibur is blessed by a spirit of wind, hiding the blade behind storms so the enemy cannot discern its true identity or exact size, also useable as a storm-based attack. In [[SonicStorybookSeries Sonic and the Black Knight]], Sonic, revealed to be the "true" King Arthur in the end, is dubbed the Knight of the Wind. And in Franchise/FireEmblem, it's a recurring thing to have wind spells named after the blade, most notably the Excalibur spell, though there's also Aircalibur and Rexcalibur. I do realize the latter are just bad puns, but still. So, anyone?

to:

* Meta-question. Is there any actual mythological basis for the association of Arthur and Excalibur with the element of wind? Because I do seem to run into that a lot. To give a few examples: In FateStayNight, VisualNovel/FateStayNight, which features a gender-flipped Arthur, Excalibur is blessed by a spirit of wind, hiding the blade behind storms so the enemy cannot discern its true identity or exact size, also useable as a storm-based attack. In [[SonicStorybookSeries Sonic and the Black Knight]], Sonic, revealed to be the "true" King Arthur in the end, is dubbed the Knight of the Wind. And in Franchise/FireEmblem, it's a recurring thing to have wind spells named after the blade, most notably the Excalibur spell, though there's also Aircalibur and Rexcalibur. I do realize the latter are just bad puns, but still. So, anyone?

** My guess is that the association came from the historical basis for Arthur being either Roman or a Romanized Briton and Roman armies of the time moving faster than their opponents (what with them having larger light and heavy cavalry components than their predecessors) and having brought UpToEleven their ancestors' fascination for [[RainOfArrows raining pointy death on their enemies]].

Community

Tropes HQ

TVTropes is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available from thestaff@tvtropes.org. Privacy Policy